The Archaeology of a Great Estate by Nicola Bannister John Barnatt

Author:Nicola Bannister, John Barnatt [Nicola Bannister, John Barnatt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Archaeology, History, Europe, Great Britain
ISBN: 9781909686311
Google: vKOmAwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Windgather Press
Published: 2009-08-25T00:00:00+00:00

Gateposts

There is much variation in the types of humble gatepost used across the Estate60 – it is a rewarding diversion to look out for these as you walk around.

Traditionally, gritstone was the most commonly used stone for gateposts on the Estate, even at Cracknowl Pasture where the walls were of limestone. This was easier to shape and decorate. They vary considerably in size and pattern of decoration and have often been reused, as shown for example by common evidence of several phases of holes for hinge pegs on single stones.

Unlike many gateposts at the boundaries of the parkland and others nearby, where patterned posts with symmetrical rounded heads predominate, the most-common type of gatepost in the farmland elsewhere was the roughly-dressed undecorated post. These had irregular, square or round heads, and may or may not have been tapered along their length. A square-headed post is usually used for the gate hinges, whilst a slightly slimmer round-headed post takes the latch. If a stone gatepost is carefully dressed or carries a pattern, this usually covers the three outer faces with the one abutting the wall headers left undressed. The simplest patterning comprises roughly chiselled stipples or diagonal hachures, where numerous short diagonal cuts were made on the surface of the stone. This pattern is also commonly seen on many dressed details in field barns. The pattern of the hachures may be in one direction only, or may be varied to form either a long herring-bone pattern down the face of the post or a patch-work of hachures going in alternate directions. Other posts have a ‘ribbon edge’ running around the outer edges of the post. This ribbon is either plain or smooth with no decoration, or has traces of narrow horizontal lines. Within the area framed by the ribbon edge, a pattern of either vertical, diagonal or herringbone lines is usually carved. A further complexity to the design can be a horizontal ribbon decoration added where the curve of the top begins.

The most highly decorated posts were not erected by the Estate, but by early 19th century Turnpike Trusts. With symmetrically rounded tops, these posts have neat parallel vertical or diagonal lines across the three outward faces, with a ribbon pattern to the edges. There is also another small group of highly decorated and ornate small posts associated with footgates alongside a water pipe laid down the Derwent Valley by the Derwent Valley Water Board in the early 20th century. These have ribbon-edge patterning enclosing a stippled interior and have rounded heads.

At Dunsa, pyramidal tops decorate posts to either side of the entrance drive to the Estate farmstead. Two plainer Estate gateposts have been found above Calton Lees and in Stand Wood, which unusually are dated, with inscriptions of 1757 and 1758. At the edge of the Estate at the east end of Harewood Moor, a pair of massive gateposts flank the former drive built in 1758. These asymmetrical posts with ribbon edging framing hachured dressing stand over 2m high. They made a statement: you were entering a Duke’s domain at this point.

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